Oak Ridge boys basketball depth pressures Fulton, Team at full strength looks sharp in second game

Thursday

Nov 22, 2012 at 10:02 AMNov 22, 2012 at 10:06 AM

All the hallmarks of an Oak Ridge Aaron Green team were on display Tuesday night. The relentless defense, the motion offense that leads to layups, and the long runs that seemingly take the Wildcats opponents out of the game early and often at Fulton.

Robert Holder

All the hallmarks of an Oak Ridge Aaron Green team were on display Tuesday night. The relentless defense, the motion offense that leads to layups, and the long runs that seemingly take the Wildcats opponents out of the game early and often at Fulton.

However, the one that usually takes the longest to develop — depth — showed up too and that made the team's 66-42 victory over Fulton in the opening night of the PrepXtra Classic even more exciting.

"We have some depth," said coach Green who went eight deep into his bench in the first quarter. "Our guys continue to buy into sharing those minutes. The way we play, there's no way a guy can play 32 minutes the way we like to get up and down, the way we pressure you. We have to continue to buy in to playing those minutes, rotating and keeping players fresh and to keep getting better each and everyday."

After starting slow, the Wildcats looked like it was midseason limiting the Falcons to just one basket from the floor during the second quarter and going on an 18-1 run to lead 34-14 at halftime.

"We didn't get off to a good start," coach Green said. "We let them get up 7-2 but I think our pressure wore on them."

The pressure also wore on the 'Cats (2-0) who weren't quite up to speed yet.

"In the first half, I had guys asking me for breaks so that tells me they're working hard," Green said. "They don't want to come out. I had more guys wanting to come out than in a while so that's a good sign because they want to stay fresh and play hard."

Rian Hall led all scorers for Oak Ridge with 15 points off the bench — 10 in the first half. Ted Mitchell and Isaac Merian had 10 each, Jaylin Henderson had nine, Cory Fagan had eight and Xavier Maddox had seven in the balanced scoring night.

All 12 players got in the game and nine scored for the Wildcats. Thirty five of their points came off the bench in the first game with the full team this season.

Football players Hall, Rashad Gray, Jalen Miller and Tim Grabenstein just four practices into the year all saw their first minutes on the hardwood and contributed.

The Falcons tried to mount a comeback closing to within 14 but Oak Ridge put on more steam and went on a spurt that put the game out of reach.

"I didn't really know (what to expect)," said Green of having the whole team on the court for the first time this year. "There's going to be a learning curve there.

"The main thing is the tone and style of play. Play hard and we will get you into the X's and O's stuff … that's going to come but the mentality of how we are going to play is what I want them to understand first, and I think they have a good sense of that."

Jody Wright's Fulton squad was led by Micah Goss. Goss had 19 to lead all scorers and help the Falcons start but was shut down for the better parts of the second and third quarters by a rotation of Oak Ridge guards. Chase Hamilton had nine. No other player for FHS had more than six.

The Oak Ridge boys played the late game Wednesday against Knoxville West in the final game of the PrepXtra Classic.

The girls will play in the Mountain View Inn Tournament at 3:45 Friday at Bradley Central against East Hamilton. Depending on the outcome, the Lady Wildcats will face either Bearden or Hamilton at 1 p.m. or 4:30 p.m. on Saturday. The tournament concludes on Sunday.